Weight lifting in combination with a balanced diet helps you build muscle. According to Michael Mejia, author of "The Men's Health Gym Bible," working out at a frequency of four times a week and increasing your calorie intake from nutritious foods by 20 percent is the shortest path to visible success in as little as six weeks.
Workout
Step 1
Start this workout after you have gained endurance and some strength from moderate weight-lifting exercises. The program to build visible muscle has a high intensity, and you want to be safe from injury by knowing the machines and weights you are going to use.
Step 2
Begin your muscle-building training with a warm-up. Ten minutes on a stationary bike, treadmill or elliptical trainer, or performing the exercises you will be doing with lighter weights at slow repetitions get the blood pumping and wake up the muscle fibers to the workout ahead. Complete your warm-up with a stretching session that merely loosens up your muscles.
Step 3
Set your exercises up in a way that you can superset the upper-body sets. This means that you bundle exercises that target opposing muscles by twos or threes. Switch between machine or exercise after each set. In one combination of sets, train the chest and the upper back. Another pairs pull-ups with dips. For the lower body, go with straight sets that you perform from start to finish.
Step 4
Lift weights that equal 80 to 90 percent of your one-rep maximum strength for size and strength gains. Exercise each muscle group to exhaustion. Give the muscles in that group a minimum of 48 hours to recover. To that end, imagine your body in sections, train each intensely for one workout, and then concentrate on a different part of the body in your next session. Stretch all used muscles at the end of your workout.
Nutrition
Step 1
Eat a diet that provides you with high quality nutrients and 20 percent more calories than your daily calorie need for maintenance. Your total calories should come to 60 percent from carbohydrates, 15 percent from protein and 15 percent from fat.
Step 2
Power your muscles with complex carbohydrates, which your body turns into glycogen, your muscles' fuel. Low levels of glycogen lead to the breakdown of protein from your muscles, keeping you from achieving your goal of having big and strong muscles.
Step 3
Feed your muscles by eating 1g of protein per pound of body weight. More than that has not shown to be of any additional benefit, according to a 1992 study by M.A. Tarnopolsky.
Step 4
Spread your meals over the day every two to three hours during your waking hours. Three larger meals and three snacks in between are the meal frequency recommended by Anita Bean, author of "Sports Nutrition."
Tips and Warnings
- Maintain cardiovascular fitness with two 15 to 20 minute interval-training sessions a week. Meal replacement/sports nutrition bars are OK for a snack, but you should not substitute it for a meal.
- Consult a physician before starting an exercise program.
References
- "The Men's Health Gym Bible"; Michael Mejia M.S. and Myatt Murphy; 2007
- "Sports Nutrition"; Anita Bean; 2004
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